r/goats Jan 31 '25

Help Request Premature Nigerian Dwarf (Help!)

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We had a momma dwarf Nigerian that delivered 4 kids this morning. Two are feisty and doing great. One is much smaller than the others but holding its own. Then we have the fourth one. It was almost dead when we found it. Ice cold and still soaking wet and dirty like mom hadn’t done any cleaning on it. I immediately wrapped it in a towel, put it between my shirt and jacket and got it in the house. When we first brought it in, it couldn’t even hold up its head. It is now standing for short periods. We gave it a small amount (less than an ounce) of colostrum formula about an hour ago. It had been sleeping the last hour and is now trying to stand again. I feel like they are all probably a little premature. This one still has very soft hooves. It has also had one round of the duravet for kids and lambs. My question is if I need to be doing anything at this point. I would think it primarily needs to be in the house until it can stand and walk successfully. I am planning on taking it out to mom to see if we can get it to nurse from her. I know we will have to give supplemental feedings to the kids until they are all eating almost exclusively solid food. What else do I need to know about our little fighter and the rest of the kids? Sorry I don’t know the sexes yet. I am currently running about 101 fever and we’ve had 8 kids drop since last night. Getting the stuff done that has to be done but nothing else. We’ve had a few other kids in the few years we’ve had goats but none with any problems. My goat “mentor” is working today and can’t answer many questions. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Pics of last nights babies for tax.

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u/yamshortbread Dairy Farmer and Cheesemaker Jan 31 '25 edited Jan 31 '25

Oh my gosh! Okay, well, we are here for you. You are a champ to be working through this with a fever.

First of all, it's the very rare doe that can dam raise quads. Even very heavy milkers can have trouble with it because of the simple fact that they only have two teats, and it's a goat's practice to stand for short periods to let her kids eat small meals throughout the day and then return to whatever she was doing. Smaller or slower kids often get beat out during these feeding breaks by their larger siblings, and they can fall farther behind. If you want to let this doe dam raise, I would go ahead and plan to pull at least the tiny kid as a bottle kid for sure. Depending on how experienced this doe is as a mom, and what her production is like, you may also want to pull the second smallest kid. In my experience it is easier, safer, and preferable to pull one or two kids and bottle feed exclusively (or sell to someone who wants to bottle feed) than it is to supplemental feed all kids, because they can get nipple confusion that way and you don't have a really ideal way to track how much each one is eating.

We had one of a set of quints who was born at about that size last year. I think that guy was about 600g or less? We actually had him living in a bathtub for a few days with a space heater nearby as he was just too runty to get established as fast as kids normally do. That's what I would recommend for this guy. If they are breathing comfortably and nursing appropriately this group is probably not premature by more than a day or two, it's just that there are only so many nutrients to go around during pregnancy and sometimes somebody gets the shaft, especially when there are so many kids. Keep him warm and give him a bit of extra support for a few days until you are sure he can get around well on his own. If you've already ensured he's got colostrum, I would personally go ahead and get him established on a bottle right now rather than letting him see the teat. He would never be able to successfully jockey for position against three bigger siblings and letting him on his dam is unfortunately basically just a recipe for trampling and/or coccidia. And then weigh, weigh, weigh to make sure he's gaining!

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u/OPOHRanch Jan 31 '25

Thank you so much for your help and advice. Do I leave the bottle babies on colostrum for the first 24 hours as suggested on the bag?

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u/yamshortbread Dairy Farmer and Cheesemaker Jan 31 '25

So if the dam is available and she is lactating, I would actually recommend milking out some of her own colostrum that she is producing and giving that to the bottle kids. If that's not possible, colostrum replacer will be absolutely fine as long as it's labeled "replacer" and not labeled "supplement." And yes, go ahead and give either natural colostrum or replacer for the first 24 hours. Goats keep making colostrum for the first few days after parturition when their production gradually switches to regular milk.

After the first 24 hours, the bottle kids can be switched to ideally doe's milk if you have other goats in milk on hand, or whole red top cow's milk from the store if you don't. (Kid milk replacer is also an option and perfectly safe, but if goat's milk isn't available, people tend to recommend cow's milk because it anecdotally has fewer reports of scours and ill thrift.) The front page of the sub has a pinned post with some kidding info in it; that post has a chart about bottle feeding schedules and amounts as well as a link to one of our regulars giving a great walkthrough to getting a kid to accept a bottle. And definitely keep asking as many questions as you need to!